is not reliable.” Al-Bukhārī said, “There are objectionable reports in his narrations,” and he also remarked, “He is not followed in his ḥadith.” Abū Ḥātim ruled, “His narrations are aberrant,” al-Dāraqutnī deemed him “abandoned,” and Imām Aḥmad stated, “I do not know Rafdah.”

As for ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUbayd, it is said that he never heard directly from his father. Imām Aḥmad and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, speaking of this very ḥadith, declared, “It is not authentic; ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr is not known to have narrated anything from his father, nor from his grandfather.”

Another of these reports is the one Ibn Mājah also recorded, transmitted by ʿUmar ibn Rabāḥ, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Ṭāwūs, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās—may Allah be pleased with them—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to raise his hands at every takbīr. Al-Bukhārī—may Allah have mercy on him—said, “ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī, meaning al-Fallās, related to me: ʿUmar ibn Rabāḥ Abū Ḥafṣ al-Ḍarīr al-Baṣrī, in what he reports from Ibn Ṭāwūs, is an impostor.” Al-Nasāʾī stated, “He is discarded in ḥadith.”

There is also the narration recorded by Imām Aḥmad in his Musnad and by Abū Dāwūd in his Sunan, through Ibn Lahīʿah, from Ibn Hubayrah, from Maymūn al-Makkī: he said that he saw ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr leading the people in prayer, signalling with his palms when he stood, when he bowed, when he prostrated, and when he rose for the next standing; each time he stood he would gesture with his hands. Maymūn continued, “I then went to Ibn ʿAbbās—may Allah be pleased with them—and said, ‘I have just seen Ibn al-Zubayr perform a prayer the like of which I have never seen anyone pray,’ and I described to him those gestures. He replied, ‘If you would like to see the prayer of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, then follow the prayer of Ibn al-Zubayr.’”

Concerning Ibn Lahīʿah, Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “He is not strong,” and he further observed, “He was weak both before his books were burned and after they were burned.”